World briefs: Iran nuclear talks falter

November 21, 2013 11:13 PM

Compiled from news services

GENEVA -- Negotiators weren't able to reach agreement on a first-step accord to resolve a decade-old dispute over Iran's nuclear program, reducing the likelihood that foreign ministers will arrive to strike a deal after two days of negotiations in Geneva.

Talks between Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and Catherine Ashton, the European Union foreign policy chief representing world powers at the talks, broke up late yesterday after more than six hours of intense consultations, the EU said in a statement. The sides will reconvene today.

The envoys are trying to strike a first-step accord that would give negotiators six months in which to win a broader agreement over Iran's nuclear work. It's the third round of talks in three weeks between Iranian envoys and their counterparts from China, France, Germany, Russia, the Britain and the United States.

32 killed in Iraq bombing

BAGHDAD -- Explosives hidden under fruit and vegetables aboard a delivery truck detonated in a crowded market selling fresh produce north of Baghdad on Thursday, killing 32 civilians and wounding scores, a day after a wave of car bombings convulsed the capital, according to medical and police officials.

The dead from the latest bombing in Saadiya, in Diyala province, included eight women and six children ages 8 to 14, officials said. The driver of the Kia truck asked workers to unload his cargo and then walked away. It exploded shortly after.other was not known.

Activists roil climate talks

WARSAW, Poland -- Hundreds of environmental activists walked out of U.N. climate talks on Thursday, saying they were deeply disappointed by the lack of results with just one day remaining.

Wearing "Polluters talk, we walk" T-shirts, the activists streamed out of Warsaw's National Stadium, where rich and poor countries were arguing over who should do what to fight global warming.

N. Korea detains war vet

SEOUL, South Korea -- North Korean officials detained Merrill Newman, an 85-year-old U.S. veteran of the Korean War, on Oct. 26 as he sat in a plane set to leave the country, the man's son said Thursday.

It wasn't clear what led to the detention. Mr. Newman's son, Jeffrey, said he was speaking regularly with the U.S. State Department about his father, but U.S. officials wouldn't confirm the detention to reporters.

The directive was unlikely on its own to curb such abuses but reflected a growing official recognition of the need to stop gross injustices, experts said.

The Supreme People's Court of China published the "opinion" seeking to curtail abuses a week after China's Communist Party published proposed reforms.

Accused war criminal

Bangui, Central African Republic -- Central African Republic's government said Thursday that Joseph Kony, an accused war criminal hunted by African troops and U.S. advisers, is believed to be in the country's remote southeast and has been talking with the country's president about a possible surrender.

U.S. officials and others expressed doubt the reported talks represent a breakthrough in efforts to bring him to justice.